Psalm 94:4 Kommentar

This psalm was penned when the church of God was under hatches, oppressed and persecuted; and it is an appeal to God, as the judge of heaven and earth, and an address to him, to appear for his people against his and their enemies. Two things this psalm speaks: - I. Conviction and terror to the persecutors (Psa 94:1-11), showing them their danger and folly, and arguing with them. II. Comfort and peace to the persecuted (Psa 94:12-23), assuring them, both from God's promise and from the psalmist's own experience, that their troubles would end well, and God would, in due time, appear to their joy and the confusion of those who set themselves against them. In singing this psalm we must look abroad upon the pride of oppressors with a holy indignation, and the tears of the oppressed with a holy compassion; but, at the same time, look upwards to the righteous Judge with an entire satisfaction, and look forward, to the end of all these things, with a pleasing hope.

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 94 Some, as Jarchi and others, think this psalm was written by Moses; others, with greater probability, assign it to David; as do the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and all the Oriental versions; and which all but the Syriac version say it was composed to be sung on the fourth day of the week, on which day the Talmudists say it was sung; see the argument of the preceding psalm. This psalm and others, that go before and follow, are without any title in the Hebrew Bible: the title of it in the Syriac version is, "a Psalm of David, concerning the company of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram; but spiritually, concerning the persecution against the church;'' not of the oppression of the Israelites in Egypt, as some; nor of the Jews in their present exile, as Kimchi; but rather of the people of God under the tyranny of antichrist; who are represented as complaining of his insults and cruelty, and as comforting themselves in the hopes of deliverance, and in the view of his destruction.

How long shall they utter and speak hard things?,.... Against Christ, his person and offices, his ministers, his people, his truths and ordinances; this is very applicable to antichrist, who has a mouth speaking blasphemies, and which he opens, and with it blasphemes God, his tabernacle, and them that dwell in it, Rev 13:5. The Targum is, "will they utter and speak reproachful words?'' contumelies or calumnies; and such are uttered by the antichristian party against the true professors of religion in great abundance, as water out of a fountain, as the first word (a) used signifies; see Jde 1:15, and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves; the just character of the followers of antichrist, who work an abomination, and make a lie, and whose whole course of life, and even of religion, is a series of sin and iniquity, Rev 21:27, these lift up themselves against, the Lord, like the high branches of a tree, as Aben Ezra; or praise themselves, as Jarchi; being proud, they are boasters; boast of their antiquity and precedence, of their wealth and riches, of their power and authority, of infallibility, and works of supererogation, and the like. (a) "effutient", Montanus, Tigurine version, Vatablus; "effutiunt", Musculus; "scaturiunt", Cocceius.

"Lord, how long shall the ungodly, how long shall the ungodly triumph?" [Psalm 94:3]. "They answer, and will speak wickedness, they all will speak that work unrighteousness" [Psalm 94:4]. What is their saying, but against God, when they say: What profits it us that we live thus? What will you reply? Does God truly regard our deeds? For because they live, they imagine that God knows not their actions. Behold, what evil happens unto them! If the officers knew where they were, they would arrest them; and they therefore avoid the officer's eyes, that they may escape instant apprehension; but no one can escape the eye of God, since He not only sees within the closet, but within the recesses of the heart. Even they themselves believe that nothing can escape God: and because they do evil, and are conscious of what they have done, and see that they live while God knows, though they would not live if the officer discovered them; they say unto themselves, These things please God: and, in truth, if they displeased Him, as they displease kings, as they displease judges, as they displease governors, as they displease recorders, yet could we escape the eye of God, as we do escape the eyes of those authorities? Therefore these things please God....Some righteous man comes, and says, Do not commit iniquity. Wherefore? That you may not die. Behold, iniquity I have committed: why do I not die? That man wrought righteousness: and he is dead: why is he dead? I have wrought iniquity: why has not God carried me off? Behold, that man did righteously: and why has He thus visited him? Why suffers He thus? They answer; this is the meaning of the word "answer:" for they have a reply to make; because they are spared, from the long-suffering of God, they discover an argument for their reply. He spares them for one reason, they answer for another, because they still live. For the Apostle tells us wherefore He spares, he expounds the grounds of the long-suffering of God: "And do you think this, O man, who judges those who do such things, and does the same, that you shall escape the judgment of God? Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering; not knowing that the long-suffering of God leads you to repentance?" "But you," that is, he who answers and says, If I displeased God, He would not spare me, hear what he works for himself; hear the Apostle; "but after your hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up into yourself wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; who will render to every man according to his deeds." [Romans 2:5-6] He therefore increases His long-suffering, you increase your iniquity. His treasure will consist in eternal mercy towards those who have not despised His mercy; but your treasure will be discovered in wrath, and what thou daily layest up little by little, you will find in the accumulated mass; you lay up by the grain, but you will find the whole heap. Omit not to watch your slightest daily sins: rivers are filled from the smallest drops.

David (Heb 4:7) exhorts men to praise God for His greatness, and warns them, in God's words, against neglecting His service. (Psa 95:1-11) The terms used to express the highest kind of joy. rock--a firm basis, giving certainty of salvation (Psa 62:7).

The second strophe describes those over whom the first prays that the judgment of God may come. הבּיע (cf. הטּיף) is a tropical phrase used of that kind of speech that results from strong inward impulse and flows forth in rich abundance. The poet himself explains how it is here (cf. Psa 59:8) intended: they speak עתק, that which is unrestrained, unbridled, insolent (vid., Psa 31:19). The Hithpa. התאמּר Schultens interprets ut Emiri (Arab. 'mı̂r, a commander) se gerunt; but אמיר signifies in Hebrew the top of a tree (vid., on Isa 17:9); and from the primary signification to tower aloft, whence too אמר, to speak, prop. effere = effari, התאמּר, like התימּר in Isa 61:6, directly signifies to exalt one's self, to carry one's self high, to strut. On ודכּאוּ cf. Pro 22:22; Isa 3:15; and on their atheistical principle which ויּאמרוּ places in closest connection with their mode of action, cf. Psa 10:11; Psa 59:8 extrem. The Dagesh in יּהּ, distinct from the Dag. in the same word in Psa 94:12, Psa 118:5, Psa 118:18, is the Dag. forte conjunct. according to the rule of the so-called דחיק.